


playing the cards

by Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell



Series: the dreamlands [6]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Gen, Queen of Nightmares!!, both of the relationships are really only referenced, i love amaranth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 07:49:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13430217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell/pseuds/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell
Summary: Before anyone knew she existed, the Queen of Nightmares set off a series of events leading to her father's death.





	playing the cards

This was _that_ timeline. Amaranth had been waiting for it. From here it could go either way: her father would kidnap her mother, leading to Amaranth's existence in the real world; or her father would eventually be killed, ensuring her mother's eventual safety and the existence of her little sister, Stelangela.

  
  
Two nights from now, her aunt Estella would slip out of the castle in the middle of the night, leaving behind only a note for the Queen and a present for her mother.

  
But to be certain Estella would buy the present, there was something Amaranth had to do first.

  
After all, there was a reason she was the queen of nightmares.

* * *

  
Amaranth shielded herself from view as she sat on her throne, twisting the threads of Dreamland. Aunt Stel was sleeping now, and it was time for the nightmare to begin. It would be short and to the point- making Stel worry for Jace's safety without changing her mind.

  
She made a gesture with her hand, a rapid circle in front of a mirror. Purple flames rose in its surface, then cleared to show Estella's dreamscape.

  
Ash drifted in the air of the Underworld the way it always had- slow, meaningless, hardly worthy of attention. As Estella wandered the path to her home, a scream rang out and echoed off of something.

  
Stel recognized it as the voice of her younger sister and started running, dodging the citizens looking curiously towards the castle.

  
Amaranth twisted a small thread around her finger and the Queen of the Underworld in Stel's dream screamed then, a scream of grief.

  
Stel was running all out now, bursting through the gates just as-

  
And there Jace was, lying on the ground, limbs splayed out, looking uncomfortable and wrong. Blood was pooling under her, a dagger in her hand.

  
Amaranth felt the threads of Dreamland wrapped around Stel's subconscious snap as she woke up, and the Queen of Nightmares smiled.

  
The first step was taken.

* * *

  
Jace had met Amaranth's father, Luke. There was nothing Amaranth could do to prevent this; in every possible timeline involving Jace she met Luke somehow.  As much as she wished, Amaranth couldn't prevent the relationship itself from happening.

  
Amaranth saw clearly that her father loved her mother, no matter how twisted that love was. She couldn't prevent the relationship, or the pain her mother would endure. But she could postpone it for a while.

  
The night after Luke and Jace had hooked up in Luke's car, Amaranth once again sat in her throne, waiting for her father's subconscious to entangle itself in the threads of Dreamland without actually making the trip there.

  
Once he was safely enmeshed, Amaranth pulled on one thread, and the nightmare began.

 

* * *

  
This dream had to be slower, seemingly from Luke's subconscious itself. No one knew Dreamland had a queen yet, and it had to stay that way.

  
Her father reached out to grab Jace's hand as he smiled at her, fingers closing around her wrist. As he did, Jace yelped and jumped back.

  
Where he had touched her, bruises bloomed under her skin.

  
Amaranth felt the beginnings of her father's unease and pushed the nightmare forwards.

  
He reached out again, grabbing her by the shoulders to apologize to her.

  
Jace winced, dark blue and black bursting under her skin, but she didn't pull away.

  
Luke set his hand on her cheek, and Jace's eyes widened silently.

  
The bruises, the skin under his hand, all turned gray, and Jace began crumbling to ash under his touch.

  
Then Amaranth reached into his mind, speaking in his voice.

  
_“If you go near her, you'll be her destruction. Do you want to see her like this, wilting because of you?”_

  
Once more, the threads of Dreamland snapped.

  
She had given her mother only a little while before the abuse began, but it was better to save her two months than not save her at all.

* * *

  
  
Her mother had gone to the photography class her stepfather was teaching.

  
Amaranth didn't really understand why he was teaching a class she knew he didn't really care for all that much, but all that mattered was that Arrog had been introduced into the equation.

  
The night Jace gave Arrog the Christmas present, Amaranth unleashed her next nightmare.

* * *

  
Amaranth cleared the flames from her mirror, watching to make sure things went as expected.

  
In this nightmare of Arrog's, Jace walked into the photography class like nothing was wrong, but Luke followed her, his eyes black from lid to lid.

  
She looked up and offered Arrog a sad smile, and Arrog noticed the black eye she was sporting, the way Luke's nails dug into Jace's arm, drawing blood. He noticed it all.

  
He watched, unable to do anything, as day after day Jace appeared with more and more injuries, always with Luke at her side.

  
One day, Jace didn't come in at all.

  
Once again, Amaranth reached into Arrog's mind. He had incredible capabilities to repress what was bothering him and didn't even sense her intrusion.

  
_“This is what's going to happen. She'll keep coming to your class, more and more injured, until one day she won't come at all, because she'll either be too injured to come or she'll be dead. If you want to prevent that, go to the Blood Moon Ball this year. It will save her life.”_

  
Then she released the threads around Arrog's mind, letting him wake up.  


* * *

  
The final morning had arrived. Amaranth had given another nightmare the night before, to Jace's friend Nikki this time. Nothing over the top, but another version of Jace's death and the words “she's in need of a friend now”.

  
Nikki had made the decision; it was this loud, over the top cheerleader that tipped the balance the way Amaranth needed it to go.

  
Now Jace was being dragged out of the castle.

  
Amaranth gathered her energy, opening a portal out of Dreamland and sliding into the real world. Invisible, but able to watch the dominoes fall into place.

* * *

  
The snap her father's neck made as it broke was gruesome, but it made Amaranth smile. Here was a sign of finality, of things wrapping up. In around eight months, Jace would realize she loved Arrog. In five years, she would give birth to Stelangela. Around two decades after that, Stelangela would take her place as the Queen of Dreams.

  
She turned and went back to her palace of nightmares, her corner of Dreamland, only to find a surprise.

  
In the throne room, her father waited for her.

  
When his gaze landed on her she flinched- the cold way he smirked was enough of a giveaway.

  
“I knew it.” He said with a grin. “This had your touch all over it.”

  
“You know me?” Amaranth asked, then internally slapped herself. _Obviously he knows you! Ask a smarter question, dumbass!_

  
“Who do you think created you?” Luke said, returning her question with one of his own. “Why do you think you looked like a twelve-year old for the longest time? I made you up when I was thirteen, the day I saw Jace for the first time. And I have to say, you've been a beautiful pawn.”

  
_No. No no no. This can't be happening._

  
Luke's fingers dug into Amaranth's shoulder, making her wince in pain.

  
“Now,” he said, “Show your dear old dad what you've been doing all this time.”

 

At her father's touch, Amaranth saw it all. The way he had wrapped himself in the threads of Dreamland, staying hidden and urging Amaranth on to take her place. Him standing in the back of the throne room as she was coronated.  


The clever way he had pushed the buttons in her mind, whispering How do we tip the scales? Until Amaranth looked at every nightmare as a way to push the right switches, to make the right things happen.  


Her father had chosen this death just as much as Amaranth had caused it. And now she was the one trapped in the threads of Dreamland, forced to show her father how to manipulate reality.  


As she watched, the timeline split again, multiple possibilities opening up. In one, Jace managed to stay with Arrog,  and Stelangela was born as expected, Luke safely trapped in a box of souls. In one, Jace watched as one by one, Luke killed the people she cared about or manipulated them into turning away from her. In the final one, Amaranth watched in horror as Jace succumbed to an eternal coma, forever with Luke in Dreamland.

  
She was Luke's pawn now.


End file.
